Conventional sanders have plates or discs to which sandpaper is attached. Some of those plates and discs are inflexible while others are flexible but the common feature of most plates and discs is that they are flat. Being flat, they are suited to smoothing flat surfaces but are not well suited to smoothing curved surfaces such as those which are concave and convex. Such surfaces are commonly found in the hulls of relatively small boats such as motor boats, canoes and row boats. A conventional sander used to smooth such surfaces frequently produces undesirable nicks and gouges in them. Moreover, such sanders rarely have effective control over how much material is removed so that the sanded surface has in addition to nicks and gouges, many uneven areas.
I have invented a tool which substantially overcomes the disadvantages of conventional sanders mentioned above. The tool has a round plate in the form of a drum to which sandpaper is attached and has means for adjusting the depth of material removed from a surface. My tool is accordingly well suited to smoothing curved surfaces such as the hulls of boats, the exterior surfaces of cars and so on. Not only is my tool suited for use as a sander but it is also suited for use as a grinder for smoothing, for example, the surfaces of components of machinery.